Wednesday, November 11, 2020

When does the seriousness of offending "cut both ways" in improperly obtained evidence admissibility decisions?

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You don’t need me to point out that the law loves its metaphors. Most of all, the metaphor of scales: decisions are often described as balan...
Thursday, November 05, 2020

Upholding a defendant's right to silence

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A judicial direction to a jury which conflicted with a defendant’s right to silence – by suggesting that silence may make it easier for the ...
Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Clarifying copyright offences on the internet

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Just as I was wondering when our Supreme Court’s decision in  Ortmann v United States of America   [2020] NZSC 120   would be delivered, her...
Monday, October 19, 2020

Inquiring into alleged juror bias

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When and to what extent should an appellate court, on an appeal against conviction, inquire into an allegation that a juror was biased? Shou...
Friday, October 16, 2020

Vagueness, stays, and fast-track: three recent decisions

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A cluster of interesting cases occurred this week.   Vagueness   On handling broad statutory definitions of offences, and broad descriptions...
Sunday, October 04, 2020

Do you really want to be a judge?

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Reading  this article  on the relative lack of diversity among New Zealand judges has made me wonder why anyone would want to be a judge. I ...
Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Probative value and reliability - the evidence of prison informants

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The idea of “probative value” in  s 8  of the Evidence Act 2006 came under scrutiny, and was the subject of some disagreement, in  Roigard v...
Saturday, September 05, 2020

Trial and error: lessons for participants

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A simple little appeal judgment can contain a lot of lessons. So it is with  W (CA641/2019) v R  [2020] NZCA 286 .   The lessons? Here are t...
Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Sixteen!

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This blog has now existed for sixteen years. Longer than Prime Ministers, Presidents, and most Chief Justices.  Longer than much of the rele...
Thursday, August 20, 2020

Law and precision

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This, my 701 st  post, is about authority and precision as aspects of the rule of law.   Borrowdale v Director-General of Health   [2020] NZ...
Thursday, August 06, 2020

Review: “Expert Evidence About Memory in New Zealand Sexual Violence Trials and Appellate Courts 2001 to 2020” by Suzanne Blackwell, Fred Seymour and Sarah Mandeno (June 2020).

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This  Report   is essential reading for counsel who are considering calling expert psychological evidence with a view to challenging the acc...